Review: Firekeeper’s Daughter

Firekeeper’s Daughter
By Angeline Boulley

Published By: Macmillan
Publication Date: March 16, 2021
Date Read: November 26, 2023
Genre: YA – Mystery / Thriller
Source: Bought
Format: Audiobook
Pages: 496

From Goodreads:
As a biracial, unenrolled tribal member and the product of a scandal, Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in—both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. When her family is struck by tragedy, Daunis puts her dreams on hold to care for her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother’s hockey team.

After Daunis witnesses a shocking murder that thrusts her into a criminal investigation, she agrees to go undercover. But the deceptions—and deaths—keep piling up and soon the threat strikes too close to home. How far will she go to protect her community if it means tearing apart the only world she’s ever known?

Firekeeper’s Daughter has been on my radar for a while. I grabbed this one on audiobook a while ago and so when it was selected as the November read for my YA Book Club, I was excited to finally read it. I will say that this was completely different to what I was expecting. And it was entirely my own fault. I am really bad at going into books blind, without even reading the blurb. So when I picked up this book, based on the cover I felt like it looked kind of fantastical and magical. I remember getting part way through the book and being like ‘so when is the fire magic gonna start’ …. if you’ve read this book, it’s okay… I can already hear your laughter. It wasn’t going to start because this book is in fact a contemporary with mystery elements.

After I realised this book was actually more contemporary I definitely settled into it more, and I did enjoy it. It’s an interesting story about drug crime in different communities and I found it really interesting. I will be honest and say that I think this book is way longer than it needs to be. There is no need, in my opinion for a YA contemporary / mystery to be almost 500 pages long. I started getting bored in the middle, and honestly if I had been reading this one physically rather than listening to the audio edition, I probably would have DNF’d. There was some serious pacing issues for me.

There are spoilers in this paragraph! If you do not want to read any spoilers, skip to the final paragraph!
I really loved that the romance didn’t end up together. I know I will be hated on for this but I feel like in YA books it is so unrealistic for the characters at 15/16 years old to meet the love of their life and that be it! I loved that they actually seperated in this one in a way that was ‘maybe in the future we’ll be together but we need to figure out ourselves first’… it was just perfect for me. You don’t see this happen a lot in any books so I adored that really praise Angeline for taking this route. It was truly fantastic!
End of spoilers!

In the end I did enjoy Firekeeper’s Daughter. The ending was very fast paced and thrilling and I am really glad I persevered and finished this book. I probably will not continue to read the other book that is set in the same world, and I definitely wouldn’t re-read it but I am really happy I gave this one a chance. If you love contemporary books, definitely give this one a go as it will definitely be up your street.

Follow K-Books on WordPress.com